Much of the historical and scientific information, including religious information, people have stored in their heads is inaccurate if not downright wrong. This misinformation is generally found to be accepted fact in mainstream media and polite society. It is easy to see the prevalence of this misinformation in popular books or movies which, incidentally, often have a huge propaganda impact on popular culture. Some books and movies, however, teach us not to trust, fully, mainstream views. The preponderance of such popular misinformation, no matter how much and how well presented, cannot reveal truth.
There is a “high cabal” (Winston Churchill’s term) that runs many things; that acts, through various instrument such as the mainstream media. It is like a censor of what the public is allowed to receive as fact or need not know. This high cabal is more of a huge family—far larger than the Rothschilds— that has one general aim or drive, namely, a will-to-power; one might even think of it as a unconscious form of psychopathy. Unfortunately, Buddhism gets caught up in it. There is the public perception of Buddhism and Buddhism of the discourses (the Buddha’s words)—a Buddhism which is much more complex and esoteric, cutting against mainstream values. This is the Buddhism that is never taught in Zen or Dharma centers.
This esoteric doctrine of Buddhism, if we can call it that for now, doesn’t resonate well with the brainwashed minions of the high cabal who have been taught to doubt anything not having the stamp of scientific materialism on it. For this reason, what Westerners believe Buddhism to be, is a distortion. Even Buddhist scholars admit that they don’t know what the Buddha taught even though much of the early canon is accessible to scholars and to the average Buddhist. Yet, it seems pretty clear that early Chinese Buddhism understood what the Buddha taught including the various Zen schools and before that Indian Mahayana Buddhism. They all taught awakening to a transcendent essence or substance that came by various names such as Tathagatagarbha, One Mind, Buddha-nature, etc. This helps us to see that what the Buddha taught in the early discourses was the unconditioned (nirvana) in contrast with the conditioned. The conditioned side is the side of suffering, the unconditioned is not. As long as we identify with the conditioned we suffer even though, intrinsically, we are unconditioned, although we are asleep to this truth.
The biggest roadblock to getting a good picture of what the Buddha taught is Western culture, itself; not the individual Westerner who is simply a victim of Western indoctrination. The problem remains, however, how does one deprogram oneself; or how does one unhypnotize oneself who, in a knee-jerk way, hates and fears the the esoteric?
Does it matter?
Without the words and the clinging to words all these things you see just disappear.
Words are pretty toys or cruel taskmasters.
Posted by: Om nom nom | June 22, 2014 at 05:01 PM